Sinéad O’Connor appears in Nothing Compares by Kathryn Ferguson, an official selection of the World Cinema: Documentary Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Andrew Catlin.
Nothing can compare to the lure that surrounds Sinéad OʼConnorʼ. Most people just have the image of her ripping apart a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live in 90’s. It’s a pop culture moment with a lot more behind it than most people understand. It’s more than a funny snippet that’s played now days, that moment itself became a doorway for artists to walk through and stand up for their political beliefs today.
Nothing Compares is the new Sinéad OʼConnor documentary that has hit Sundance. Directed by Kathryn Ferguson, the film traces the career of Sinéad and the swift aftermath of the Saturday Night Live act. Learning where O’Connor’s raw power and emotion came from shed a lot of light on her activism that came after her rise to fame. She was a simple girl in Ireland who found her way into a life of music after dealing with a horrible home life. Her superb voice was undeniable but she always held her own against every record company and things that stood in her way. Her life ebbed and flowed but the main point throughout the film is that Sinéad always stood up for what she believed in.
The documentary was presented in an odd sort of way. It was simply voiceovers narrating footage of Sinéad’s life, concerts, career and historical ongoings at the time. It put me out at times, not having that talking head cut to of the people speaking throughout. It would have been nice to have a name to the face. I couldn’t tell if Sinéad herself had recorded her statements for that particular film or if it was a compilation of older interviews. Regardless it took a minute to get used to the format.
I was very familiar with O’Connor’s career. My parents wedding song is “Nothing Compares 2 U” and I’ve listened to her older albums since I was little. The documentary helped me understand her even more, her past itself the reason for a lot of the pain in her songs. What I didn’t understand was just how much of a true feminist badass O’Connor was though. The film did a superb job highlighting not only her ability to stand up for her image but how she did it in style. Her fashion sense alone pioneering a lot of what we see today.
The real point of Nothing Compares is that Sinéad OʼConnor was ahead of her time. The world turned on her but it lead to something much bigger for artists today. She made political statements, she shaved her head, she went against a preconceived notion of what she had to be to sell records. O’Connor didn’t let a single person tell her what do. Now I’m not saying I agree with everyone’s political stances but they should be able to stand up. And she was one of the first to really stand up, although at the time it riled up the world to turn their back on her.
If anything Nothing Compares is a thank you letter to Sinéad for doing what we didn’t understand at the time. Her music and tenacity is a direct inspiration for future artists everywhere. I believe this is a great viewing for a lot female creatives out there. It had some weaknesses but it made me realize a lot more than I went in knowing. I didn’t expect the plot point that Nothing Compares made but I think Sinéad would have wanted that. You watch every frame and suddenly realize there’s more to the bigger picture, ripped in half or not.
Nothing Compares had its World Premiere in the World Documentary Competition section of Sundance Film Festival 2022.
Director: Kathryn Ferguson
Rated: NR
Runtime: 97m
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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Writer. Geek. Final Girl.
